1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to acceleration sensors, especially to capacitive acceleration sensors.
2. Description of the Related Art
A capacitive acceleration sensor has stable temperature characteristics, as well as excellent features in that its sensitivity and accuracy can be easily improved, and so forth. Therefore, a demand of installing such a sensor into a vehicle has been increased, where excellent temperature characteristics and high-accuracy characteristics are required. For example, the capacitive acceleration sensor is used for detecting impact force on an air bag system installed in a vehicle.
A capacitive acceleration sensor, for example, is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-133479 (Paragraph 0031, FIG. 8), which includes on a silicon substrate, an anchor and a mass body that are made of silicon, a beam, provided between the anchor and the mass body, for supporting the mass body in the air, by forming a space between the mass body and the silicon substrate, fixed electrodes arranged in both sides of the mass body so as to form a space, and a sub-support member arranged so as to surround the periphery of these anchor, beam, mass body, and fixed electrodes; a glass substrate is mounted on the sub-support member so as to form a space for the mass body and the beam; and the substrate and the sub-support member are anodically bonded with each other.
By the way, when the sub-support member and the glass substrate are anodically bonded with each other, the mass body is grounded, and a voltage is applied to the glass substrate. Therefore, due to potential difference occurring between the mass body and the glass substrate, a problem has occurred that the mass body is drawn and stuck to the glass substrate, which has been one of factors for decreasing a production yield.
A method of preventing the problem that the mass body is stuck to the glass substrate, for example, is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-151703 (Paragraphs 0026 and 0027, FIG. 1), in which a metal film such as an aluminum film is provided on the glass-substrate surface facing the mass body.